Gavin C.

About Gavin C.

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer on March 17, 2018. We caught it extremely early, so there was time to choose between 4 options. My wife, Retha, has been with me for 38 years. We were 18 years old when we married. I’ve been through other life-threatening situations, and she is still by my side. On January 17th, 2019, I went in for a prostatectomy. A 3-hour surgery. In the waiting room were Retha, our son and daughter-in-law, and her niece, who traveled from Kendalville Indiana. The surgery took a bad turn, and ended up taking 9 hours. The surgical team came out every 2 hours for updates. You can imagine, the anxiety of sitting in a waiting room, not knowing what the outcome would be. The original plan was Retha taking 9 days off work and I would be home in 2 days so she could care for me. Instead, I spent 6 days in the hospital while Retha went home to an empty house (except for our cats). She had to go back to work just 3 days after I came home from the hospital. What was to be a 4 week recovery is now a 4 month recovery. I now have a temporary Ileostomy that will be reversed in mid March. It’s been really tough on her, but she’s a tough person. She has a great support system at work. And for the first 2 weeks I was home, she would come home from work and do all the housework with no complaints. She’s taken care of me in the past with 4 other major surgeries. It takes a special, special person to care for me these 38 years, as well as caring so deeply for so many others, which is why everyone that knows her, loves her. To young women, she is “Momma Retha.” And she is a powerful woman. Which is why I love her so, and so very proud of her, and so proud to be called her husband.

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